CHICAGO: Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi should be prevented from attending next month’s UN General Assembly because Tehran is complicit in attack on novelist Salman Rushdie in New York on August 12, and continues to foment violence and terrorism across world.

This is view of Norman Roule, CIA’s former national intelligence manager for Iran, who said that President Joe Biden and UN must send a strong message that Tehran’s actions will not be tolerated in an interview with Arab News’ Ray Hanania Show.

Roule said attack on Rushdie by 24-year-old Hadi Matar, a Lebanese American from Fairview, New Jersey, was a “clear act of terrorism” that reflects a wider campaign of Iranian-sponsored violence that demands a forceful response from US, its European allies and UN. If this had been an act of Al-Qaeda, Roule said, reaction from US and other European allies “would be different.” If Biden does not ban Raisi from entering US to attend UNGA meeting in mid-September, then next option would be to boycott Raisi’s speech, argued Roule.

“We cannot allow them to get away with this cost-free or it encourages further violence.”–Agencies

Published in The Daily National Courier, August, 19 2022

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